Compliant surface multi-well culture plate

Abstract

A multi-well plate can be loaded with a range of compliant substrates. Commerically-available assays can be used to test cellular responses across a plate with shear modulus from 50 to 51200 Pascals. Cells can be grown in the plates, and can be manipulated and analyzed. Hydrogels can be attached to the bottom of a well. The plates can support the attachment and growth of different cell types and can be compatible with standard 96-well and 384-well plate assays. The mechanical properties of the hydrogels can be reproducible and stable to increase the shelf life of the substrate. The hydrogel can be compatible with growth of a variety of cell types, various attachment ligands such as collagen I, collagen IV, flbronectin, vitronectin, laminin, or RGD peptides and can be coupled to the gel surface.

Description

[0001] Cross References to Related Applications [0002] This application claims the benefit of US Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60 / 969,104, filed August 30,2007. [0003] license [0004] The Government has certain rights in this invention pursuant to contracts NIH HL-82856, GM-073628. Background technique [0005] The physical environment of a living cell affects its ability to proliferate, metabolize, differentiate and remodel. Living cells possess detailed expression profiles and express distinct phenotypes and physical states, and are very responsive to the stiffness (ie, rigidity modulus) of their underlying support matrix. [0006] One of the widely shared views among bioengineers and life scientists is that, in many cases, rigid substrates are not suitable for evaluating the physiological behavior of cells. Early efforts to more realistically mimic tissue environments in three-dimensionally reconstituted biological components, such as collagen, fibrin, a...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, these methods are prohibitively expensive, technically impractical, and unsuitable for many high-throughput cell-based experiments. These systems cannot support the wide range of elastic requirements when cultured in

Furthermore, in many cases, the in vitro response of cells to pharmaceutical compositions and biological substances cannot accurately predict the corresponding in vivo functionality and toxicity.

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